German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble
Charles Platiau/Reuters
VIENNA (Reuters) - Greece's economic problems are home-made, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told an Austrian newspaper, reiterating Berlin's line that it will not pay war reparations to Athens.

"I think those in charge are obliged to tell the people the causes of the problems in Greece. They are not in Brussels, Europe or Germany.

They are in the fact that Greece lived beyond its means for a long time," he said in an interview with Der Standard released ahead of publication on Saturday.

Germany this month dismissed Greek demands to pay World War Two reparations after leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras accused Berlin of using legal tricks to avoid paying compensation for the Nazi occupation of his country.

"The matter has been settled for decades," Schaeuble said.

On other subjects, he said he saw no danger to bilateral ties despite hits to German banks from the winding down of defunct lender Hypo Alpe Adria's "bad bank".

"Of course there are legal disputes and efforts to get to a reasonable solution of a complex problem. But in my view no problems in German-Austrian ties arise from this," he said.

(Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

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